Canadiens almost had Lafleur and Dionne in 1971

The late Sam Pollock was one of the greatest traders in the history of the NHL. One has to look no farther than May 22, 1970 when he traded prospect Ernie Hicke and a 1st round draft choice (which turned into Chris Oddleifson) to California for Francois Lacombe and more importantly the Seals 1st round pick.

That pick turned out to be the first overall draft pick, although Pollock sought insurance on that lofty seating. He traded veteran Ralph Backstrom to the Los Angeles Kings, the league's second worst team, to bolster the Kings and ensure California's last place finish.

The Habs then had the enviable task of choosing between two French Canadian superstars to lead them for the next decade or more. They chose Guy Lafleur, allowing Detroit to take Marcel Dionne.

In a recent Eric Duhatschek interview with Scotty Bowman remembering the late Sam Pollock, we are led to believe that the Montreal Canadiens actually came very close to securing the 2nd overall draft pick in 1971.

"The two best juniors by a mile that year were Lafleur and Marcel Dionne," recalled Scotty Bowman, one of the many Pollock protégés who went on to have fabulously successful NHL careers. "The night before the draft, we met for three hours and Sam grilled everybody in the room - Al MacNeil, Ronnie Caron, Claude Ruel and a couple of scouts - What should they do with Lafleur and Dionne?

"Then he excused himself and made a call to Ned Harkness, in Detroit, to propose a trade. The Canadiens had just won the Stanley Cup in '71 and Sam offered Detroit Phil Myre, plus either Terry Harper or J. C. Tremblay and something else, to get the second pick. And Detroit was going to do it, because they were going to get three players who could help them.

"I remember Sam came back in the room and said, 'If I make this deal, could it be another [Jean] Béliveau and [Bernie] Geoffrion for 10 years?' But nobody would stand up and say yes, so he didn't make the deal - because that's how Sam worked. If there were five people in the room, he would never do anything until he talked all five people into doing what he wanted to do.

"But that's how Sam operated. If there were two great players in the draft, he wouldn't be satisfied with saying, 'I'm getting Lafleur, to hell with Dionne.' He wanted them both."

If he had landed both, perhaps the Canadiens would have gone undefeated in 1976-77. With just Lafleur they went 60-8-12.